The experience of learning wind ensemble music through a Dalcroze-inspired approach: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

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The experience of learning wind

ensemble music through a

Dalcroze-inspired approach: An Interpretative

Phenomenological Analysis

IM Maphakela

Orcid.org

0000-0002-0494-8718

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the

degree

Master of Arts in Musicology

at the North West

University

Supervisor:

Dr A Odendaal

Graduation ceremony: May 2019

Student number:

22558306

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ABSTRACT

This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) aimed to understand the meaning that the members of the North-West University (NWU) Symphonic Wind Ensemble ascribed to their experiences in incorporating a Dalcroze-inspired approach in their wind band rehearsals. The basis of interest in this topic stemmed from the fact that the Dalcroze approach is not widely employed within the instrumental music learning environment in South Africa and, more specifically, within the wind ensemble context. Five students who were members of the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble were interviewed for this IPA; they were all at different stages in their studies and had different levels of experience in ensemble playing. Additionally, some of the chosen participants had had previous experiences with the Dalcroze approach through occasional workshops and through their music theory lessons at the NWU School of Music.

The NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble was subjected to several rehearsals in which a Dalcroze-inspired approach was incorporated for the purpose of learning Bernstein’s “Mambo”. Data were collected by means of in-depth, semi-structured interviews and observational field notes, and analysed by using Atlas.ti 8, where distinctive codes indicated four superordinate themes. The data analysis process revealed that the participants found their musical awareness heightened by the approach. The participants also found the approach to be a socially beneficial and enjoyable experience, and ultimately found that it made their music learning experience easier. The importance of these findings lies in their potential to assist in developing pedagogical methods in ensemble teaching; the possibilities for research in this regard include how Dalcroze-inspired activities could contribute to students’ attitudes and confidence in ensemble settings.

Key terms

Interpretative phenomenological analysis, Dalcroze-inspired experiences, wind ensemble

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge and thank the following people:

• Dr Albi Odendaal, for your support and guidance throughout the past few years. You have given me a lot of insight into the field of research and opened up my way of thinking. You have even gone beyond the limitations of your job

description and without you, this would never have been possible.

• Prof Hetta Potgieter, for your willingness to give assistance in the final stages of this study, for your valuable inputs on writing and for opening up your workspace for the benefit of my study.

• Yvonne-Marié Brand and André Oosthuizen, for allowing me to use the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble for the purpose of this study.

• Dr Eva Nivbrant Wedin, for your wonderful hospitality and lessons on Dalcroze Eurhythmics during my time at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. • All the participants involved, you sacrificed your free time to assist me in my

research study and for that I will be eternally thankful.

• MASARA (research entity), for providing financial assistance so that I could focus on this dissertation.

• Solomon and Busisiwe Maphakela (my parents), for always being willing to provide support, financially and emotionally, and for believing in me and my capabilities. There is no way I can ever repay you, and it is my hope that this study will bring joy and hope to your hearts, as well as reinforce the faith that you have in me.

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Ensemble walks, stamps on the unmarked tones and slaps the marked tones on

their knees. ... 44

Figure 2: Ensemble places accents on the first and last beats of the bar. ... 44

Figure 3: Ensemble places accents on the second major beat of each bar... 45

Figure 4: Open bar where the ensemble walks and claps the main beats. ... 45

Figure 5: Ensemble walks the main two beats and claps the accented tones. ... 45

Figure 6: Still walking the main two beats, the ensemble claps these accented tones. ... 45

Figure 7: Ensemble then claps these accented tones while still walking the main beats. ... 45

Figure 8: Ensemble claps the accented notes while walking the main beats. ... 45

Figure 9: Ensemble claps this rhythm as I play the main beats on the drum. ... 46

Figure 10: Ensemble claps this rhythm as I play the main beats on the drum. ... 46

Figure 11: The higher notes represent the places where the ensemble vocalised with a “da” and the lower notes represent the areas where the ensemble clapped. They were still walking the main beats. ... 46

Figure 12: The half notes represent the main beats and the eighth notes represent the pattern the ensemble claps. ... 46

Figure 13: Variation 1 ... 47

Figure 14: Variation 2 ... 47

Figure 15: Fragment of the chorus of “Mambo”... 47

Figure 16: Combination of the rhythmic patterns resembling the chorus theme of the piece .... 47

Figure 17: The top tones represent the main beats/pulse played by the drum and the low tones represent what was clapped and vocalised by the ensemble. ... 48

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x

Figure 18: Pulse and rhythmic patterns at bars 17-19 of the score ... 48

Figure 19: Rhythmical excerpt of the “Mambo”. ... 48

Figure 20: Rhythmical excerpt of the “Mambo”. ... 49

Figure 21: Dominant rhythmic pattern at the introduction of “Mambo” ... 49

Figure 22: Rhythmic patterns played by the bass instruments ... 49

Figure 23: Rhythmical excerpt of the main theme in “Mambo”. ... 51

Figure 24: Trumpet call-and-response ... 52

Figure 25: Percussion 1’s introduction rhythms ... 52

Figure 26: Percussion 2’s introduction rhythms ... 52

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PRELUDE

It was on this particular day that Charles regretted ever applying for this course. He could have had a successful career in athletics, but went against the recommendations of his friends and family and chose to do otherwise. Wednesdays were usually busy for most undergraduate students at the conservatory and today was no exception. He entered the building and heard the usual sounds of trumpets, tubas and trombones, as well as the odd singing here and there. These sounds, which were usually a motivation for him, were not invoking the same inspiration now. He walked into the school of music with a deep sense of melancholia, exhausted from the activities of the day and already looking forward to the end of the rehearsal.

He knew that he had not practised and this rehearsal was not going to be a walk in the park. There was a major performance coming up and he knew he had to step up. He was having a bad day, but something stranger was happening. The usual chaotic symphony of everybody playing their solos at the same time was nowhere to be heard; it was quiet. He asked himself whether he had missed something, but chose to walk up the stairs to where the band usually rehearses. As he was walking in the corridor leading to the rehearsal room, he realised that the door of the room was open. He decided to walk into the room to see why it was so quiet. When he arrived at the door, the whole band was there, standing quietly in a circle. More peculiarly, they were barefoot…

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

This study explores the use of a Dalcroze-inspired approach as an aid to learning in a wind ensemble setting. According to Habron (2014:94), the Dalcroze approach consists of “rhythmics” in which the focus is on “movement, improvisation and highly focused listening”; “aural training” (or solfège) in which “movement, improvisation and the voice” are used as tools in the pursuit of “aural development and understanding”; and vocal, instrumental and movement improvisation that develop “creative and spontaneous expression”. Some of the abovementioned aspects of the Dalcroze approach, for example the focus on developing a strong sense of listening, the development and understanding of the aural perception, and a promotion of expressive (though not spontaneous) playing, are valuable skills that could prove to be essential in ensemble learning. Ghezzo (1980:3) reinforces this statement by listing a sense of harmony, hearing and musical sensitivity as some important areas of focus in the arsenal of a musician. It would thus be safe to say that the same traits would be important in ensemble playing; in other words, an ensemble is made successful by its members’ abilities to listen to each other, to know their parts within the scope of the general musical texture and to play expressively and in tune. The potential influence that the Dalcroze approach may have on music learning in the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble thus forms the basis of my interest in it.

The defining problem of this study is that the Dalcroze approach is not widely employed within the instrumental music learning environment in South Africa. Apart from Davel (2014), who studied Dalcroze-inspired activities as a tool for improvisation in beginner jazz ensembles, as well as Wentink (2017), who studied the lived experiences of ensemble performers with Dalcroze Eurhythmics, I do not know of any ensembles that make regular use of this approach within the instrumental ensemble setting. As far as I know, the North-West University Youth Orchestra is the only instrumental ensemble in South Africa that incorporates a Dalcroze-inspired approach into its rehearsals occasionally. There have been studies that show the incorporation of a Dalcroze-inspired approach in ensemble rehearsals, but these took place in international settings and specifically in choral ensembles (Apfelstadt, 1985; Abrahams, 2006; Daley, 2013;

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Henke, 1984). A major reason for the lack of this approach is that there are no qualified Dalcroze practitioners in South Africa.

This study differs from other studies, as it sought to understand the meaning that wind ensemble members ascribed to musical learning that involves a Dalcroze-inspired approach. Davidson (2012) undertook a case study (based on the role of bodily movement and facial actions in expressive music performances) in which both the solo and duo settings were examined. Odom (2005) wrote a historical study in which she describes how Dalcroze Eurhythmics was used by various groups of people in the classroom setting. Several authors have also written on the benefits of the Dalcroze approach in the choral setting: Apfelstadt (1985) and Henke (1984) wrote journal articles about the topic and Daley (2013) wrote a narrative on the Dalcroze approach and its applications in choral pedagogy and practice.

Various articles have been written on the Dalcroze approach, its theory and different applications (Anderson, 2011) such as in African music (Phutego, 2005), and how it develops the inner ear and musical understanding (Thomsen, 2011). Juntunen and Hyvönen (2004:200) wrote a phenomenological study that sought to explain how movement “within the frames of Dalcroze Eurhythmics can facilitate musical knowing” and how “bodily experience provides a means of developing skills, competencies and understanding necessary to work in the expressional mode of musical knowing”. Van der Merwe (2014) also wrote a phenomenological study that focused on students’ first experiences of Dalcroze-inspired movements in a Baccalaureus Musicae (BMus) music education class. Despite the fact that many authors have written on this approach, I have found that there are no phenomenological articles within the international context that use a Dalcroze-inspired approach as a means to learning a piece of music for the purposes of performance in the wind ensemble setting.

The phenomenological approach is fitting for the purposes of this study, since it seeks to illuminate the essence of the lived experiences of the participants by describing how they make sense of these experiences and what meaning these experiences have in their lives (Colaizzi, 1978:53; Creswell, 2013:78; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016:9). As far as I know, Wentink’s (2017) doctoral thesis, which explores the lived experiences of ensemble performers with Dalcroze Eurhythmics, is the closest literature available that resembles this study; it is worth noting that the doctoral thesis in question uses a sextet comprising string players, wind players, a brass player and a pianist. This implies that

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the context of the study is unique, as it uses a wind ensemble setting that has, according to my knowledge, not been explored in the literature yet. This study is thus unique in the sense that it is based on a South African wind ensemble, namely the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

By investigating the link between Dalcroze Eurhythmics and wind band playing in South Africa, this study hopes to shed light on the meaning that the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble members ascribe to the approach. The study could thus prove to be useful for the reader who is interested in a different approach to music learning and teaching within the wind band setting. Through this study, wind band enthusiasts should gain a better understanding of the importance of a Dalcroze-inspired approach in music learning by being given insight into the participants’ expressed thoughts on the approach. A further objective of the study is to heighten the participants’ awareness of the importance of Dalcroze-inspired exercises, not only in wind band rehearsals, but also in their private practice sessions. The study could further add to the current literature regarding Dalcroze-inspired approaches and music learning in ensembles, and be of interest to researchers and music educators in this field of study.

Purpose statement

This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) aimed to understand the meaning that the members of the North-West University (NWU) Symphonic Wind Ensemble ascribed to their experiences of incorporating a Dalcroze-inspired approach in their wind band rehearsals. “Dalcroze-inspired approach1”, in this context, is the practice of using

the method to teach music commonly known as Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Meaning can be defined through the following quote by King, Hicks, Krull and Del Gaiso (2006):

A life is meaningful when it is understood by the person living it to matter in some larger sense. Lives may be experienced as meaningful when they are felt to have significance beyond the trivial or momentary, to have purpose, or to have a coherence that transcends chaos (2006:180).

For the purpose of this study, I have replaced the word “life” in the definition above with the word “experience”. Thus, my definition of meaning, in accordance with the quote above, states that the Dalcroze experience could be meaningful if the participants found

1_{The phrase “Dalcroze-inspired approach” is used in this paper because the researcher is not a certified}

Dalcroze practitioner. “Dalcroze Eurhythmics” would have been used if the researcher was formally recognized as a practitioner of the approach.

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that it matters in the larger sense, that it is beyond trivial or momentary and that it is purposeful.

Research question

This IPA achieved its purpose by taking into account the following research question:

How can I interpret the meaning that the members of the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble ascribe to their experiences in learning music through a Dalcroze-inspired approach?

The piece of music to be used for answering the research question is Leonard Bernstein’s “Mambo” from the musical “West Side Story”2.

Procedures

This study employed a qualitative research approach that, according to Creswell (2014:5), implies a specific set of methods and philosophical assumptions. The qualitative study carried a constructivist worldview agenda, which implies that the individuals included in the research “seek an understanding of the world in which they live and work … develop subjective meanings of their experiences” and “these meanings are varied and multiple, leading the researcher to look for the complexity of views rather than narrowing meaning into a few categories or ideas” (Creswell, 2014:8). I thus asked broad questions to achieve this while also monitoring the interaction of participants with others, as Creswell recommended (2014:8).

Research design

This study followed an IPA research design. The difference between IPA and phenomenology is described later in this study, however, I will give the definition of phenomenology first as a broad outline. According to Creswell (2013:78), phenomenological researchers aim to describe the lived experiences of participants with reference to a specific phenomenon that they have experienced. Phenomenology thus draws the focus to the essence of the lived experiences of participants who share a specific experience (Creswell, 2013:104) – in this case, the experience that the members of the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble have with a Dalcroze-inspired

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approach in their rehearsals. In their description of the research method, Smith, Flowers and Larkin (2009:3) confirm that the aim of IPA is to acknowledge the participants’ reflections on their experiences and engage with those reflections. This study thus aimed to shed light on the participants’ experiences by describing the said experiences and the meaning that they hold in the participants’ lives.

1.5.1 Participants

Five students who were members of the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble were interviewed for this phenomenological study. The members of this group were between the ages of 18 and 29 and were in various stages of their study at the NWU School of Music. Some of the chosen participants had had previous experiences with Dalcroze Eurhythmics through occasional workshops that were held at the NWU School of Music and were facilitated by Dr Eva Nivbrant Wedin from the KMH3, and several participants

had had Dalcroze-inspired exercises incorporated into their music theory lessons by Prof Hannes Taljaard. However, some participants were new to the Dalcroze-inspired approach. Their involvement in this phenomenological study would provide reliable and rich insight into the meaning that a Dalcroze-inspired approach has for music learning within the ensemble.

1.5.2 Role of the researcher

During the period stretching from 15 August 2016 to 15 January 2017, I had the opportunity to study at the KMH in Stockholm, Sweden. This opportunity came about in the form of an exchange programme that the North-West University School of Music and the KMH have in place, which seeks to promote intercultural learning and is also primarily focused on Dalcroze studies. Upon my arrival in Stockholm, I noticed some striking differences in the teaching methods applied in the Dalcroze lessons, which took place at the music education department, as compared to the music education lessons that we received in my own school of music.

These differences in teaching made me think of ways in which my school of music could try to apply these KMH methods. Being a wind player and member of the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble myself, the idea of incorporating the Dalcroze approach into the wind ensemble practice seemed like a suitable exercise, as it is an environment in which there are students with different backgrounds and experiences in music-making,

3_{KMH is the acronym for Kungliga Musikhögskolan. It is the royal college of music based in Stockholm,}

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but none of them being having experience in the Dalcroze approach. To further clarify my decision to study this approach in the wind ensemble, I will refer to a short essay that I wrote, titled “Reflections on my experiences of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in Stockholm”:

Upon my arrival in Stockholm, I had a theoretical idea of what Dalcroze Eurhythmics was (i.e., an approach to learning and teaching music through

movement), but I was yet to immerse myself in an environment where the approach is thoroughly explored. At the KMH, the majority of the lessons that I attended were Dalcroze lessons with three lecturers who are very dedicated to

and passionate about the approach.

One of the lectures that I regularly attended was a class consisting of students who were in the early stages of their music education training, a bridging course of sorts. It

was interesting to see how, at the very beginning of the lesson, we were required to create movements that were in synchronisation with our names. Everybody would then show the rest of the class their movement while saying their name, and the class would repeat the name and movement of everybody else in the class. I had my doubts about

the exercise – especially because I am terrible at memorising people’s names – but I realised that I learned people’s names very quickly using this method. I even bumped

into a fellow classmate weeks later in the train station, and she immediately remembered my name and performed the movement that I had created! Another thing that I remember doing more in this particular class than in any of the other classes was

solfège; a particular exercise, playing with cards that represent the degrees in a scale, comes to mind. We were supposed to lay these cards out on the floor and take turns, in pairs, to lead and follow the other by pointing to a card and singing its pitch. I think such practical ideas of using simple, everyday items as a means to teaching music is a far

greater alternative to verbally “punching” the ideas into learners’ heads. Another lesson that I attended frequently also tackled the three basic facets4 of

Dalcroze Eurhythmics. However, what stood out more about this lesson was the rhythmic work that we did. We worked a lot with irregular metres in this lesson, something that I have not experienced a lot before. We did exercises that helped us to

memorise the rhythm and time signature of a piece with a frequently changing time

4_{The three basic facets of Dalcroze Eurhythmics are Rhythmics, Solfege and Improvisation (Wedin,}

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signature. There was even an exercise that required of us to compose our own piece of music in quintuple time. We would then perform our compositions and the rest of the classmates would move to our compositions. This particular exercise was fantastic for

me, because it gives you a first-hand experience of how people hear your music (or your performance) and makes you realise that it may not always be what you intend it to

be. I remember my composition achieving exactly what it was meant to, except for one passage where it gets slower, and I think this had more to do with my performance than

anything else.

The third lesson that I attended focused more on the improvisation aspect of Dalcroze Eurhythmics; here, we used different objects as a means to learning music. There were many exercises that we had to do; they required that we expressed the music we heard with the objects we had in our hands. Objects varied – we would have elastic bands, balls, hula hoops, broomsticks, drumsticks and scarves. What this exercise did was that

it forced us (without being told) to vary our movements according to the form of the music. There was also a particular exercise that I remember us doing that didn’t feel like

it was important at the time, but had a lot more significance the more I think about it. It was a warm-up exercise in which the class would hold hands in a train-like formation

and run around the room to a fast-paced piece of music, following the leader, and everybody received the opportunity to lead and follow. That exercise alone, even though it felt like fun, made me realise my responsibility as both a regular member of the “train” and a leader. As a member, it was my responsibility to make sure that I follow the movement of the leader in as accurate a manner as I possibly could, taking care not to mislead the one behind me. As a leader, I had the responsibility of making sure that I

use the whole room and to manoeuvre my movements in such a way that I do not cause confusion.

I even had individual lessons in which we focused a bit more on my personal performance as well as my teaching. The personal aspect helped me to be able to place myself within the harmonic structure of a piece. I regained my sense of “hearing”;

for some reason, I had lost my ability to listen to different parts in an ensemble. However, after having had to create movements, not only for solo flute, but for other

parts as well, my listening process went from being passive to active. I also had an opportunity to teach my fellow classmates some aspects of two basic flute songs. I learned a few valuable lessons from my experience in teaching my classmates. Some

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of these lessons are the following: First, people have different imaginations of what a melody or any musical aspect of a piece should sound like. It is thus advisable not to go

for too long without playing the actual melody or musical aspect of the piece when teaching rhythm through movement. Playing the melody of whichever musical aspect it may be in the piece helps the students to make sense of what they are doing. Second,

always aim to teach without too much speaking/description; however, do not leave students completely to their own devices. You need to set ground rules or boundaries. Three, the class does not always have to begin with the same routine, but it always has

to be coherent. Four, it is not advisable to use the same approach in a Dalcroze Eurhythmics lesson each time; for example, one lesson may start with long tone exercises, and the next may start with exercises that create an awareness of triplets. Five, in the ensemble setting, start with the overview first, then the details, then back to

the overview again.

These experiences shaped my interest in the approach and were key to my role within the research. It is important for the researcher to discuss his/her experiences with the phenomenon at the onset of his/her study – even if it is in a different context – because the experiences help the researcher to interpret the data collected from the participants in an honest and accurate way. Creswell (2013:78) states that this method of “bracketing” oneself out of the study by discussing personal experiences of the phenomenon does not totally exclude the researcher from the study, but rather serves to get those experiences out of the way so that the experiences of the participants are the main focus.

I acted as the primary instrument for data collection in this study (Merriam, 2009:15). This meant that I would take my role as an observer during the research process as a primary objective and my participation in the group as a secondary objective (Merriam, 2009:124). For this to be effective, I took care not to allow my personal biases to influence me during any stage of the research (Bresler, 1995:4, 10), but used my intuition to interpret the experiences of the participants (Moustakas, 1994:35). My personal experiences with the Dalcroze approach in Stockholm and the manner in which I witnessed musical growth amongst the learners in our class at the KMH influenced me to try a similar approach to learning in the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble. I should state that I did not witness this approach being used in the wind ensemble setting during my stay in Stockholm. We did, however, engage in plenty of

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ensemble-like activities, and this was why I thought it would be just as effective in the wind ensemble. It was my hope to use a different method, which I viewed as being generally effective for music learning, in an ensemble that is not used to employing the said method in order to reap the same growth that I had witnessed in my Dalcroze lessons at the KMH.

1.5.3 Data collection

According to Creswell (2014:190), qualitative interviews should include face-to-face sessions with the participants or focus group interviews with interviewees. Guest, Namey and Mitchell (2013:8) state that in-depth and focus group interviews are ideal methods for collecting phenomenological data. Smith et al. (2009:57) strengthen this premise by stating that one-on-one, semi-structured interviews are the preferred method for collecting data, eliciting “detailed stories, thoughts and feelings from the participant”. I thus collected data by conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews, asking questions that allowed the participants to reflect on their Dalcroze-inspired rehearsal sessions (see Annexure B). Because all the participants were full-time students at the NWU School of Music, most of the data collection took place at the School of Music, as it is the most neutral setting for everybody involved.

1.5.4 Data analysis

Smith et al. (2009:79) state that the data analysis processes in IPA should focus on “the participants’ attempts to make sense of their experiences”. To achieve this, I coded the interview transcripts using the ATLAS.ti 8 qualitative data analysis software in order to determine the emerging themes connected to the participants’ Dalcroze-inspired experiences. I also used The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (Saldaña, 2013) as a guideline while coding, focusing specifically on the in vivo (Saldaña, 2013:91-95) and the emotion coding (Saldaña, 2013:105-110) strategies. These strategies assisted me in analysing and interpreting the interview transcripts by labelling the emotions recollected and expressed by the participants during the interviews. By identifying and labelling keywords or phrases in the text, I gained insight into the experiences that the participants had with their Dalcroze-inspired rehearsals, as well as the meaning of these experiences in their lives.

There are six steps that Smith et al. (2009) state as being helpful in the analysis of data in IPA and that I ultimately used in order to make sense of the participants’ experiences.

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- The first step requires reading and re-reading the data in order to “ensure that the participant becomes the focus of the analysis” (Smith et al., 2009:82). This was especially important in the study, as I am a member of the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble and it was possible that I could lose my sense of objectivity as researcher when coding the data.

- The second step in the analysis process involves examining the “semantic content and language on a very exploratory level” and noting any points of interest within the data in order to identify participant comments that highlight things that matter to them and their meaning (Smith et al., 2009:83).

- The third step includes developing emergent themes in the data by “breaking up the narrative flow of the interview” and dividing the interview into various parts (Smith et al., 2009:91).

- The fourth step in analysing the data involves searching for connections between the emergent themes and producing a structure that allows the researcher to point to all the most interesting and important aspects of the participant’s account (Smith et al., 2009:96).

- The fifth step (2009:100) involves moving onto the next case and repeating steps one to four.

- The sixth step involves looking for patterns across the cases (Smith et al., 2009:101). I followed these six steps of data analysis to stay true to the IPA research approach and to understand the meaning the members of the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble ascribed to learning music through Dalcroze-inspired movements.

1.5.5 Validity

To ensure that the research is reliable and valid, I recorded the interview conversations and transcribed each interview personally, taking care to remain transparent throughout the process. My transcription process was guided by the assertion of Skukauskaite (2012:24), who stated that “transparency in transcribing and in revealing theoretically coherent and systematic ways of transcript construction becomes a ground for uncovering socially constructed interpretations and representations of the world in which people live”. I further ensured the validity of this study by stating my bias as a researcher at the onset of the study (Creswell, 2013:251). The research process was carried out continuously over the course of a year, and that strengthened the validity of my research. Furthermore, each participant in the study received a copy of the research

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once it was complete in order to validate that my findings were accurate and that they were comfortable with the publication of these findings (Creswell, 2013:251).

Ethics

One of the first ethical considerations that I observed was to ensure that all the participants gave their informed consent to take part in the study (Creswell, 2013:174). I thus had to provide the participants with consent forms (Annexure A) that included all the necessary information about the research project. The forms gave each participant the right to withdraw from the research at any time. I also had to take care not to disrupt the site or the participants (Creswell, 2013:58) and their NWU School of Music engagements by making sure that all the interviews were scheduled well in advance and did not clash with any classes, rehearsals or performances. I gave the participants an opportunity to review the data extracts from their interviews (Smith et al., 2009:53). Lastly, I had to ensure the anonymity of the participants throughout the study, stay true to the essence of the participants’ lived experiences from their point of view and not force my own biases onto the data (Creswell, 2013:59; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016:238).

Lay-out of the dissertation

The first chapter of this study was a discussion providing a background to the study. In the following chapter, I will focus on the available literature that addresses the Dalcroze approach in various contexts, as well as provide arguments for and against the approach. In the third chapter, I describe the research design, approach and the procedures that I have followed in conducting this study, which is followed by my research findings in the fourth chapter. The final chapter of this study offers a discussion of the findings and is concluded with my recommendations for research.

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This section of the study begins with a brief account of how the Dalcroze approach came into being. The history of the approach is important for the study, because it provides a frame of reference for the advances that various scholars have made towards the approach. In this section, there are also examples of different applications of the Dalcroze approach within different contexts. The aim of this is to highlight how helpful various scholars have found the approach in these contexts. Throughout the section, the three main aspects of the approach, namely rhythmics, aural training/solfège and improvisation, will be discussed.

A brief history of Dalcroze Eurhythmics

According to Nivbrant Wedin (2015), Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950) is the Swiss composer, musician and music educator who is credited as the founder of the movement-based approach to learning and teaching music, called Dalcroze Eurhythmics. He was appointed as professor of solfège and harmony at the Conservatory of Geneva in the early 20th century. During this time, he made an observation that many of his students were able to write harmonies and rhythms, but he was not impressed with their abilities to perform those harmonies and rhythms. The students were seemingly only taught the technical, purely mechanical aspects of performing, but lacked a sense of expressive sensitivity that is necessary for the musician. It is this observation that led him to think of new ways to educate his students, ways in which the students could hear the music mentally before they hear it sonically, and he dubbed this the development of an “inner hearing”. Jaques-Dalcroze believed that developing this “inner hearing” would enable his students to realise the muscular processes that go into making music and that somehow, their performances would improve through this awareness.

While experimenting with these ideas, Jaques-Dalcroze noticed that his students responded through involuntary movements to music being played. He therefore thought of ways in which he could incorporate movement into his solfège lessons and systematically started asking his students to walk, sway, conduct or make any gestures that they felt were appropriate for the music, and thus the approach developed over time. With solfège and rhythm (i.e., walking and swaying to the pulse or rhythmic impulses of the music) as part of this new ‘radical’ idea of his, Jaques-Dalcroze decided

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to go further by adding improvisation as a main aspect of the approach. The reason for this was that Jaques-Dalcroze believed that the act of improvisation is necessary for the students’ creativity in music-making and should be nurtured and developed as much as possible. He then thought of ways in which he could improve the improvisation of his students through movement in order to improve their aptitude in this regard (Anderson, 2011; Mead, 1994). The foundations of the Dalcroze approach are thus based on these three core aspects. Jaques-Dalcroze himself (1930:361) confirmed this in an article by saying,

The three main branches of instruction that I recommend are: 5rhythmic

gymnastics, rhythmic solfège, and rhythmic improvisation, i.e., rapid composition. These three elements are dealt with separately. They are, however, connected together by movement, and their mutual action is such that they cannot exist without – and continually complement – one another.

Urista (2016:7–8) captured the essence of the Dalcroze lesson by describing it as an approach that utilises a “spiral of learning”. According to her, this “spiral” consists of several steps that the learner must go through to get the full experience of the approach. The learner should go from “listening to moving; moving to feeling; feeling to sensing; sensing to analysing; analysing to reading; reading to writing; writing to improvising; and improvising to performance”. This “spiral of learning” has its roots in Jaques-Dalcroze’s initial ideas of focusing on practice before theory (Nivbrant Wedin, 2015:16). To further explain the idea of ‘practice before theory’, Urista (2016:8) asserted that “engaging the moving body allows participants to experience the sensation of a musical event before it is conceptualised” and that it encourages students to develop their imagination and own personal images of the music through kinaesthetic movement.

Ultimately, the aim of this new way of music teaching that Jaques-Dalcroze had conceptualised was for it to aid students in learning and, consequently, performing their music in a manner that is not too laboured or mentally exhausting. Even more importantly, Jaques-Dalcroze wanted to develop a method that would harness a whole body awareness and understanding of music in his learners. The natural movements felt by the students to music that is played in class became the starting point of teaching in the classes of Jaques-Dalcroze. He stressed that one should have an internal sense of rhythm to be able to reproduce it, and that this internalisation of rhythm enables the

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student to reproduce it in a manner that requires very little effort on his/her part (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1930:362-364).

The development of Jaques-Dalcroze’s approach, as a by-product, gave his students a sense of confidence in performing their music in his lessons, and he stated that many of his students regained self-confidence once they were able to dig into their natural responses to the music and “to grasp the relations that unite physical and intellectual rhythms” (Jaques-Dalcroze, 1930:362-365). The history of the Dalcroze approach is what motivates the manner in which Dalcroze practitioners conduct their lessons these days. It would be fitting to discuss the manner in which the lessons are conducted in order to establish a better picture of the typical Dalcroze lesson.

The general objectives of a Dalcroze Eurhythmics lesson

In a typical Dalcroze Eurhythmics lesson, students are encouraged to use the whole body in order to experience or embody the music physically. It is believed that you come ‘closer’ to the music if you experience it by engagement with your whole body, and that your performance of the music after engaging with the music in this way becomes a unique representation of your connection with it (Mead, 1994; Pierce, 2010; Urista, 2016). Swanwick (1988) made a good argument of why it is necessary to incorporate movement in the music lesson. He suggested that most studies based on the expressiveness of music will ultimately run into one major hurdle, which is that expressiveness, as described by people, is a matter of metaphorical perception rather than analytic account. How the music makes one’s body feel or respond is thus primary, and this embodied perception gives the listener a sense of the weight, size, impulse and manner of movement that is afforded by the music (1988:25-29).

Whereas other studies have established that experiencing music through movement can be helpful in other regards – such as Habron and Van der Merwe’s (2015) reviews of Jaques-Dalcroze’s writings and their link to some perspectives provided by their hermeneutic phenomenological model of spirituality in music education – Swanwick’s (1988) observation pointed directly to the helpfulness of experiencing music through movement in mapping how listeners perceive the music and, by extension, in building their personal musicality. Mead (1994:6) suggested that several emotional and bodily functions are awakened as students immerse themselves in the Dalcroze approach,

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mentioning the senses, the nervous system, the intellect, the physical body, the emotions and the creative and expressive self as some of them.

As a more detailed example of how movement to music clarifies how a listener hears a specific piece of music, Vanderspar (2005:5) named several objectives that should be achieved in the Dalcroze lesson. She argued that a Dalcroze lesson can develop:

• the students’ listening and inner hearing;

• musical awareness through the senses, motor skills, the long- and short-term memory, and concentration;

• the ability to release tension from the body and to relax;

• the social awareness of the student (within a group and as an individual) and the strengthening of individual character (i.e., giving the student a sense of self-discipline and decision-making);

• reaction and adjustment;

• alertness and readiness to learn; • analysis and synthesis; and

• the ability to transfer acquired knowledge to other contexts, to adjust to the ideas of others, to create ideas from the ideas of others, and to express these ideas clearly.

The literature (Nivbrant Wedin, 2015; Vanderspar, 2005:6-7) has provided other focus points in the typical Dalcroze lesson. According to these authors, when a Dalcroze practitioner is conducting a lesson, their exercises will often aim to improve the students’ sense of pulse, beat and metre recognition, their sense of rhythm, their knowledge of duration in music, their perception of time and tempo, their recognition of the various pitches and intervals, their recognition of texture and density in a piece of music as well as different timbres, an awareness of the importance of the silences within the music (rests), the students’ ability to phrase, and their awareness of form and structure. All these focus points in a Dalcroze lesson ultimately lead to a more accurate ability to read and notate the music, the acquisition of a strong sense of the

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memorisation of the music and, by extension, the development of an in-depth understanding of the repertoire.

When working on these musical aspects, the Dalcroze practitioner will typically engage five basic types of exercises that can be adapted to a great variety of musical materials and pedagogical aims. Urista (2016:16–25) labelled the five exercises as follows:

1. Quick-reaction exercises: These are exercises in which the student is supposed to react as swiftly as possible to any changes that may arise in a piece of music. The purpose of these exercises is to keep the student attentive, to keep their mind aware of what is happening in the music, and to aid them in responding to musical change effortlessly.

2. Inhibition-excitation exercises: These exercises involve students’ movements in-between states of action and inaction. The purpose of these exercises is also to keep the student ready for any changes that may arise in the music, whilst measuring (during the time in which he or she is inactive) the level of intensity to be applied in the next active state.

3. Interference exercises: These are also exercises for students moving in-between a state of action and inaction, both in the music and in their movements. The aim of these exercises is to harness the students’ inner hearing and concentration.

4. Imitation and canon exercises: These exercises involve the expression of rhythms and melodies through movement, and the purpose of these exercises is to perform one musical part whilst listening to another, which is necessary for any musical ensemble.

5. Disassociation exercises: These are exercises that require the students to perform two or more – usually opposing – movements at the same time by using different parts of their bodies, and the aim of these exercises is to develop the students’ multitasking skills.

These abovementioned exercise types are just broad descriptions of the kind of activities that usually take place in a typical Dalcroze lesson; the Dalcroze practitioner may adapt different ways of integrating them into the classroom. Prior experience in the Dalcroze classroom is very helpful for the knowledge and implementation of these

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exercises, but because of the lack of Dalcroze practitioners in some countries, it is not always possible to gain this experience. This is why it is important that the aspiring Dalcroze practitioner is aware of these exercise types to guide the lesson.

To supplement the description by Urista (2016) of the five typical exercises in the Dalcroze lesson, Mead (1994) recommends that students should be able to move freely to the music being played in the classroom, that their movements should not be hindered and that they should feel free to express the music however their instincts direct them to. The abovementioned recommendations do not mean that chaos should reign in the classroom. Saying that the students’ movements should not be hindered does not necessarily mean that movements that are inappropriate to the music at hand should be encouraged, and the teacher needs to direct the students if this takes place. For example, students may be allowed to walk in any direction within the room as they please, as long as they stick to the pulse of the music.

When the aspiring Dalcroze teacher has established what to do in the lesson, it is important to know the circumstances in which this approach has been applied. This knowledge is helpful because it raises an awareness of how ‘far-reaching’ the approach is within the scope of music. The next section in the paper is a collection of literature that shows how the Dalcroze approach has been applied.

The various applications of the Dalcroze approach

The Dalcroze approach has been applied within different contexts of music-making and learning, and the literature shows that various scholars have found it to be helpful in these different scenarios. It is thus important that we examine these different contexts to see what the various scholars have discovered in studying the approach.

2.3.1 The Dalcroze approach applied in the choral context

There exists literature suggesting that the Dalcroze approach may be useful in the choral context. It has been acknowledged that the use of movement in choral rehearsals can serve as a useful tool in harnessing the ability of choristers to internalise solfège and rhythmic concepts. The Dalcroze approach has also been identified as being helpful in vocal pedagogy. The ways in which the Dalcroze approach can be useful in the choral context are discussed below.

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Apfelstadt (1985) has applied the approach to the choral context. In her article, she describes how movement can be used as a warm-up tool and a way to achieve physical relaxation. Unpacking the importance of physical relaxation, she asserts that this is an “important prerequisite for vocal relaxation” and that it promotes a sense of readiness in the singer, which is necessary in the choral setting (1985:37). She goes further by describing how certain Dalcroze-inspired movements can be used in the choir, highlighting some ways in which these movements can be beneficial, as well as stating some things to avoid while facilitating the movements in the rehearsals. She describes how the circular motion of the arms can be used in arpeggio warm-up exercises as a means of realising that the arpeggios are complete components or phrases and of achieving flow. She cautions against merely walking the pulse without having a forward sense of flow and a musical phrase that begins and ends somewhere (Apfelstadt, 1985:37-38).

A year earlier, Henke (1984) also studied the application of Dalcroze’s approach within the choral context, focusing specifically on the solfège aspect of the approach. He suggests various exercises a conductor can use that differ in level of difficulty and are divided into different categories. The first set of exercises is meant to promote a sense of aural perception. Amongst these exercises is a quick response exercise during which the choristers are supposed to sit down and stand up quickly when they hear a chord of a certain sound quality, which is a minor triad in this case. He also suggests asking choristers to vocalise descending patterns while walking them, taking half steps where there are semitones and thus forcing them to be aware of the pitches of their voices in relation to the pitches within these various patterns. Thirdly, he recommends that the conductor asks the choristers to sing a pattern that is played in unison on the piano, and then vary the exercise by asking them to sing it in canon form against the piano, as it helps them to be more aware of their pitch placement (1984:11–12).

Another set of exercises that Henke (1984:12-13) discusses involves improving rhythmic sensitivity. Amongst various exercises discussed, one includes singers walking a crotchet (or quarter note) pulse on a scale that changes in tempo while singing it at the same time. On the cue of the director, the singers must continue to walk the basic pulse while singing the scale in minim (or half note) or quaver (or eighth note) values. He also suggests various exercises that improve the choristers’ reading ability, and

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these again involve singing scales while physically embodying it by walking or clapping a crotchet pulse.

Other authors have written about the impact of a Dalcroze-inspired approach in the choral setting. In an article that suggests strategies for choral conductors in schools, Abrahams (2006:113) identified the importance of interpreting music through movement, as it helps students to understand abstract concepts and to internalise information. He attributes this benefit to movement engaging both hemispheres of the brain, mentioning that this helps for a better long-term memory too. He thus finds this method of teaching in the choral setting to be useful. Daley (2013:108) has also found that the Dalcroze approach has musical benefits for choristers, for example the development of “a greater sense of technical accuracy (pitch and rhythm), and attention to musical detail and nuance”, as well as an “improvement in attention and focus, freedom to experiment with the music, and depth of affective response in learning”. Furthermore, in this study the participants identified three main purposes for the use of the Dalcroze approach in the choral context. These are to

1) develop their choral skills, which include the vocal, aural, kinaesthetic, ensemble and music literacy skills;

2) prepare the whole body for accurate and expressive performance of choral repertoire; and

3) develop non-musical outcomes that support choral conducting and singing, including mental acuity, creativity, a contextualised view of self and others, self-confidence and risk-taking, and enjoyment in music-making (Daley, 2013:iii).

In summary, the Dalcroze approach has been endorsed as being an aid in the development of physical relaxation, which, in turn, is useful for vocal relaxation. The approach being valuable in this pedagogical manner makes it one worth trying by choral conductors. Furthermore, as it is suggested that some of the exercises are useful for the development of the rhythmical and solfège aspects of music-making as well as for grasping abstract concepts and general expressive singing, they are deemed a beneficial tool in the choral context. The Dalcroze approach has not just been identified as being useful in the choral rehearsal; its application has also been explored in other contexts.

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2.3.2 The Dalcroze approach applied in the school context

There are plenty of sources from around the globe that promote the value of the Dalcroze approach in general music education in schools. Ferguson (2005) studied the literature based on movement and elementary music education, and found that children often possess the ability to conquer certain musical concepts before they can define those concepts vocally. He goes on to say that “structuring teaching to accommodate this verbal lag through the use of movement, as well as to accommodate other student preferences such as peer collaboration, is considered good practice” (2005:29).

Caldwell (1993:27-66) shares similar thoughts on the benefits of the Dalcroze approach, stating that it is successful because it focuses on showing the students not only what musical principles they need to learn, but how they need to learn them. He asserts that the approach assists the students in six stages, stating that it is effective in helping them (1.) to pay attention to the music; (2.) by raising their awareness to where they need to direct their attention; (3.) to concentrate on the music. After paying attention and concentrating on the music, it becomes easier for the students to remember what has been done; (4.) to reproduce a performance; (5.) to change it and make it personal; and (6.) to make it automated, which is the summation of the previously mentioned five stages. These ideas expressed by Caldwell suggest that the Dalcroze approach may be useful for the general music education setting, as it is helpful for the concentration and focus of the music education student.

Anderson (2011:2) argues that the approach seeks to find a balance between the body and mind, which, in turn, makes it possible for one to express rhythm consciously and instinctively. He further asserts that the approach enables students to internalise rhythmic expression to the point where they do not have to be dependent on the complexity of thought to understand rhythm. Other authors have made similar statements regarding the Dalcroze approach. Juntunen (2004:26) reviewed related literature and found that the teachings of Jaques-Dalcroze suggest that “it is most natural to develop the sense of rhythm through movement” and that Jaques-Dalcroze “encouraged his students to become aware of the rhythms of their body movement, to recognize the rhythms of music, and to realize them in movement”. The idea of learning a musical element (which is rhythm) through a movement-based approach to learning is thus supported by other authors.

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Van der Merwe (2014), for example, ran a study that sought to understand the meaning of Dalcroze-inspired activities for students within the music education classroom context. Her study was an expansive one in which students were exposed to Dalcroze-inspired activities that were facilitated by different music education teachers. The experiences of these students, as described in this study, showed that they found the Dalcroze approach helpful in the social integration of the group (2014:7-8, 13); it was found that they considered the approach to be a joyful experience (2014:8, 13); it was also discovered that the students’ experience of engaging with the various musical elements (such as the length of tones and rhythmical dictations) through their bodies was “eye-opening” (2014:8-9, 13-14); the students found that they had now discovered an approach that allowed them to understand musical concepts more easily (2014:9-10, 14); and the students also found that the Dalcroze approach helped them with their musical expression (2014:10-11, 15).

Also within the scope of music education in schools is the aural training/solfège aspect of the Dalcroze approach. According to Juntunen (2004:28), the term “solfège” can be defined in reference to exercises “that aim at building a connection between what is heard and what is written”; these exercises are essentially meant to teach students how to “write melodies, rhythms and harmonies by ear and, on the other hand, translate the written music into sounds, usually by singing at first sight”. This definition suggests that the Dalcroze approach might be helpful in reading, writing and playing melodic lines, and is relevant, as we have already seen that solfège is one of the basic attributes of the approach. Anderson (2011:3) adds that an equally important attribute of solfège “is the identification of harmonies” and that they “can be heard and identified by groups of students, who in turn use hand signals to show what they hear as the root of each harmony”. The assertion made by Anderson is also crucial to this study, as the identification of harmonies can also be seen as an important part of wind ensemble playing. This makes solfège an important part of the music learning process in wind bands and, by extension, makes the Dalcroze approach useful in this regard.

We can deduct from all the above mentioned literature sources that the Dalcroze approach, which employs body movements as a basis for teaching and learning music, may be effective in overcoming musical challenges that often arise in ensemble playing, for example playing with an accurate sense of rhythm as well as heightening the aural

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perception. It is important to note that the previous authors only spoke of the Dalcroze approach within the school context and that other settings have also been explored.

2.3.3 Other applications of the Dalcroze approach

Turpin (1986) asserts that modern movement classes are good places to utilise the approach, specifying that “the development of musical sensitivity in young dancers may have its greatest potential in the Dalcroze techniques” (1986:58). He also suggests that “physical and intellectual development, eye-hand-body coordination, listening, improvisation, an understanding of melodic contour, and rhythmic sensitivity” are some of the aspects that could be explored in these classes (1986:58). Greenhead and Habron (2015:24) describe the Dalcroze approach as a somatic practice and state that, at its core, it is “music, movement and improvisation, and a certain kind of relationship between the practitioner and the class”.

Links between the Dalcroze approach and music therapy have also been explored. One example of such a link is an assertion made by Habron (2014:104), who stated that “Dalcroze and improvisational music therapy share music-making as the primary means of working towards change” and that “the notion of music as therapy finds an echo in Jaques-Dalcroze’s idea of an education through and into music, music as education”. Again, musical sensitivity and movement are explored, with the addition of music and spirituality as well as music therapy linked to the Dalcroze approach by this author.

Arguments for and against the use of Dalcroze approach

To date, a sizeable amount of scholars has shown interest in the Dalcroze approach, its methodology, its various applications and its benefits or lack thereof. This section of the study highlights some of the opinions found in the literature.

2.4.1 The Dalcroze approach: its benefits

Movement to music stimulates all the capacities we use to engage in music: the aural, visual, tactile and muscular senses; our reasoning faculties; and our ability to feel and act on our feelings. (Urista, 2016:2)

The abovementioned quote from Urista’s (2016) study has set the tone for this section very well. In music-making, a number of our senses are stimulated simultaneously. It thus goes without saying that an approach that can engage these senses at the same time would be the most effective for the purposes of music-making and learning. Another author who shares the same sentiments as that of Urista’s is Pierce (2010:xiii),

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who asserts that movement to music that is focused will produce audible changes in a musician’s performance sound. Some of the musical changes that will occur through the incorporation of movement include the shape of melodies and their wide-ranging energies and more intelligible phrases that reach their cadence points in a musically acceptable way.

The use of movement in music has also been applied to the practice of memorisation. Taylor (1989), for example, has explored how the approach of focusing on kinaesthesia as a means of memorising music was effective amongst a group of school children. Short extracts of music from three different genres – i.e., classical western music, classical Indian music and jazz – were played to this group of children and movement exercises were applied to these extracts. The results of this experiment revealed that the school children’s ability to recognise the extracts a week later in an impromptu test were raised considerably because of the incorporation of these movement exercises.

Studies have also been conducted in which the application of movement in the instruction of toddlers has been experimented with. Andress (1991:22), for example, found that music activities that include movement exercises for small children help with their recognition of the entirety of the music that they hear, as well as certain “structures within the music, such as the underlying beat, rhythm patterns and musical form”. She further states (Andress, 1991:25) that movement is one of the most important instructional tools in such settings, as it helps the children to learn how to “perform, describe and create music”. In the same study, she suggests not only finding ways of incorporating movement into the children’s classroom, but also taking into consideration the age group of the children and their physical abilities, as these may affect their kinaesthetic prowess. A child who is two years old, for example, may not have as much balance as a child who is four years old. It is thus imperative that the music educator take this into consideration when devising movement exercises for children in these age groups.

The idea of using movement as a tool for the promotion of Jaques-Dalcroze’s idea of “practice before theory” has also been explored. Swanwick (1999:56), for example, points out that people from outside the western classical tradition have always been aware of how musical fluency takes priority over musical literacy, and uses this to explain how the use of movement in teaching music may be helpful in achieving this “musical fluency” before focusing too much on the theoretical aspects of music. He

The experience of learning wind ensemble music through a Dalcroze-inspired approach: an interpretative phenomenological analysis